AARP is peddling baloney sandwiches when it comes to homeowners insurance and for that, the giant organization should be made to sit in the corner for misleading its own members.

Perhaps it is downright impertinent for fading seniors to question the workings of this self-anointed paternal lobbying agency turned questionable business wheeler-dealer, but at the risk of seeming as petty as the arguments in a 50-year marriage, here goes.

AARP has, like AAA, gone off on a number of business tangents masquerading as better deals for members only. These unsolicited "offerings" give members that cozy feeling of the fetus with little to do but eat by osmosis, wiggle fingers and toes and sleep in the assurance somebody is watching over them.

Case in point: One of AARP's advertisements jointly with Hartford Insurance Co. enticing people 55 and older to join the organization offers homeowners' insurance with these hopeful words for Cape Codders: "Get better protection. Get low rates and value."

What elderly Barnstable resident who has been bounced around mercilessly by insurers in the last few years doesn't want what AARP seems to be offering in its list of membership perks? Regular insurance companies "serving" Barnstable have taken the goldmine of decades of premiums and given their consumers the shaft.

One elderly Yarmouth woman who had signed on with Hartford through AARP more than a year ago as insurers were abandoning the Cape market was covered for the first year for $700. She renewed recently for $900 -- a far cry from the $1,500 to $2,000 offered by FAIR, the state's insurer of last resort, and remaining private insurers.

The Yarmouth woman told a Hyannis friend who was paying $1,500 to FAIR about her good fortune. The friend, aware in her sunset years on fixed income that every penny counts, plunked down the membership fee for AARP, then signed on for home insurance from Hartford, which she received last June for $700. It covers her neat Cape Cod cottage just north of Route 28 in Hyannis and her peace of mind. It also dropped her premiums by $800.

In so doing, she also escaped FAIR's anticipated and already approved 25 percent increase that Attorney General (and defeated gubernatorial candidate) Thomas Reilly is, like the bells of St. Mary's, appealing.

Good news travels fast, even when it turns out to be a dud. The Hyannis woman told another friend, we'll call her "Patsy" in deference to double entendre, who promptly joined AARP with her mate for $29.50 and subsequently, believing she had met the requirement of membership as advertised, applied to Hartford for a homeowner policy.

After several vague e-mails from Hartford and AARP, the agency said it had gotten in touch with Hartford and the decision on the application was this: "For the program to maintain competitive prices and to offer quality protection (bull dung) we've (AARP and Hartford?) established eligibility requirements (other than membership?). At this time, we are unable to provide coverage for your property because your home is located in an area (Cape Cod?) exposed to the hazards of wind storms."

Kansas and Texas with their violent tornadoes aren't exposed to wind storms? Is not Chicago "The Windy City?" Does not an ill-mannered Mother Nature cough and sneeze and exhale volumes where she pleases -- in Denver, or Worcester?

Patsy was disturbed at being misled and made a victim of discrimination -- an outcast from other members - at the hands of AARP-Hartford, not by color of skin, or religious choice or ethnic origin, but simply by where she lives.

One expects the corporate modus operandi to be cold-hearted, but not an agency that describes itself as the sentinel of seniors.

Rather than side with its member, AARP has become an apologist for Hartford, explaining the giant insurer's viewpoint rather than fighting for inclusion of its member in Hartford's advertised offer of access.

As a matter of principle -- one small step for elderlykind - Patsy asked that her membership fee be returned. AARP has responded that it will -- rather than lock horns with Hartford on this issue.

AARP should demand that Hartford service all of its members -- even if it means charging a little more for premiums -- or sever its ties with the insurer for discriminating against AARP's members.